Timepiece regulator



oct. 1o, 195o F. FENG-LER 2,524,902

- 'rInEPIEcE REGULATOR y med nay 1s, 194e Patented Oct. 10, 1950TIMPIECE REGULATOR Ferdinand Fengler, Bristol, Conn., assignor to The E.Ingraham Company, Bristol, Conn., Va corporation of ConnecticutApplication May 16, 1946, Serial No. 670,247l

1 Claim. (Cl. 58-109) This invention relates to improvements in timeinstruments and more particularly to improvements in regulators for timeinstruments.

Heretofore in time instruments of the marine' or lever-movement type, inwhich the regulator is pivotally mounted on the frame of the timepieceby one of the pivot-bearings of the balance-stair, it happens notinfrequently that in assembling these elements of the timepiece, thepivot-bearing associated with the regulator is inadvertently screwed orforced down into the movement-plate to an extent such that thefrictional engagement between the regulating-lever and the head of thepivot-bearing is so great as to preclude any movement whatsoever of theregulating-lever. Consequently, when an attempt is made to adjust thetimepiece by moving the regulating-arm, the latter is bent or otherwisedistorted, thereby elimihating this highly essential feature of thetimepiece. Attempts have been made in the long history of thetime-instrument art to overcome this diiliculty as, for example, byintroducing a washer between the lever and the head of the pivotbearing,and while a certain'degree of success has been attained, up to the timeof the present invention, no completely-satisfactory solution of thisproblem has been accomplished.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improvedregulator construction such that the regulator may be adjustably securedto the frame by the regulator-mounting means but without the likelihoodof being bound to the frame thereby. f

A further object of the invention is to provide the regulator of atimepiece with segregated resilient means adapted to be cooperativelyen- 'tain modes of carrying out the presentinvention are shown forillustrative purposes:

Fig. 1 isla fragmentary plan View of the rear of the frame of atimepiece, including the balance wheel, regulator, and hairspringassembly;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the timepiece-frame shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of the frame and balance-wheel structureon line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of the regulator; f Fig. 5 is a perspectiveview of the pivot-stud; and

Fig. 6 is an elevational View similar to Fig. 2 but showing the improvedregulator used with a conventional pivot-bearing screw.

Referring to the drawings, the frame of the timepiece is indicatedgenerally at IU and comprises front and rear movement-plates I and I2respectively, joined by pillars I3 in a usual and well-known manner. Thebalance wheel III is rigidly secured to a balance-staff I5 which, inturn, is pivotally mounted at its opposite ends in pivot-bearings IG andI? of the front and rear movement-plates respectively. In the embodimentshown in Fig. 2, the pivot-bearing I5 of the front movement-plate IIcomprises a conventional pfivot-bearing screw having a head i8 and aneXteriorly-threaded shank I9, the extremity of which is dished andhardened to provide a bearing-surface. The pivot-bearing I'I of therearplate I2 is a stud having an enlarged head 20, a neck 2l having astop-shoulder 22 and a depending shank-portion 23, as shown clearly inFigs. 3 and 5. The extremity of the shank 23 is dished and hardened toprovide a bearing-surface for the adjacent end of the balance-staff I5.Referring to Fig. 4, the regulator is indicated Lgenerally at 24 andcomprises a relatively-thin flat sheet-metal member having a hub-portion25 substantially circular in shape; and a liat reach or arm 26 formedintegrally with the hub-portion of the regulator. The plane whichintersects .the longitudinal edges of the arm 26 is substantially atright angles to a horizontal plane through the hub-portion of theregulator (see Fig. 3), this substantially-right-angle relationshipbetween the plane of the arm 26 and the plane of the hub.- portion 25being secured by 1providing a twist 21 in the arm 2E at its junctionwith the hub 25. rIhe latter' is provided with a concentric apertureindicated generally at 28, the diameter olf the aperture beingrelatively large in comparison `with the diameter of the hub-portion 25of the regulator, so as to form a reatively-narrow annular rim 29.Extending inwardly toward the center of the aperture 28 from the rim 29,are a plurality of resilient radially-disposed ngers 30, the latterbeing joined integrally at their outer ends with the rim 29 of the hub.The inner free ends of the fingers 30 dene a substantially-circularconcentric central aperture 3|, the diameter of which correspondssubstantially to the diameter of the neck 2| of the stud Il. As shown inFigs. 3 and 4, the inner free end of each individual resilient finger 3Uis elevated above the horizontal plane of the hub-portion 25, theelevated ends of the fingers lying in a common horizontal planesubstantially parallel to that of the hubportion 25. Although threeradially-disposed resilient lingers 3U are shown in the presentembodiment, it will be understood that the number of ngers may be moreor less than three, and that an equivalent structure would comprise, forexample, a single resilient element extending from one edge of the riminwardly to the center of the hub, its inner free end being providedwith a central aperture to receive the neck 2l of the stud Il. For astructure embodying a relativelylarge number of resilient lingers, thehub of the regulator may comprise a central dished surface provided witha central aperture from which a plurality of radial slots run out to therim of the hub.

Referring to Fig. Ll, the outer end cf the regulator-arm 25 comprises asubstantially-rectangular vane 32 having a V-shaped notch 33 in itsouter edge intermediate its upper and lower ends constituting arelief-recess opposite the frame element 34 of the rear movement-plateenable the regulator-arm 26 to be swung clockwise to an extremeright-hand position, ir such an adjustment is necessary. The lower endof the vane 32 is provided with the usual aperture 35 through whichpasses one of the turns 35 of the hairspring 3l (see Fig. 3) foreffecting the adjustment of the balance wheel il! in the manner wellknown to the art. Y

The regulator 213 is adapted to be mounted on the outer face cf the rearmovement-plate l2 and to be secured thereto by the pivot-bearingstud Il,the shank 23 of which is adapted to be driven down into an aperture 33in the rear movement-plate I2. To facilitate and speed up the assemblyof the stud l l, balance wheel l .f3 and regulator 24, the stud isprovided with the aforementioned stop-shculder 22, the diameter of whichis greater than that of the aperture 38 in the plate l2, as aconsequence of which the shoulder 22 limits the extent to which the studmay be driven into the aperture 38. When assembled on the outer face ofthe rear movement-plate, the inner free ends of the resilient ngers S9of the regulator frictionally engage the underside of the enlarged head20 ci the stud Il to effectively hold the regulator 24 in any adjustedposition, the rim 29 of the hub-portion of the regulator bearingsquarely against the outer face of the rear movement-plate, as clearlyshown in Fig. 3. While it is conceivable that the height of theneck-portion 2l cf the stud i? could be made to equal substantiallyexactly the thickness yof the hub-portion of a conventional regulator soas to preclude the possibility of binding the regulator to the framewhen the stud is driven into its assembled position therein, in actualpractice this is impracticable not only because of the unwarrantedexpense which would be involved in machining the studs to within suchclose tolerances but also because of the occurr-ence or" unpredictablevariations in thickness of the stock from which the regulators are made.

The impro-ved regulator fof this invention is adapted to compensate forvariations which inevitably occur in the thickness of the stockinaterial from which the regulators are made and in the height of theneck-portion of the stud il. Thus, it will be clear that when the heightof the neck-portion 2i of the stud l1 is greater than the thickness ofthe rim 29 of the regulator, the

i2, toY

elevated inner free endsI of the resilient fingers 30 will frictionallyengage the underside of the head 20 of the stud I1 so as to compensatefor the increased space between the underside of the enlarged head 20and the rear face 0f the rear movement-plate I2, to thereby effectivelyhold the regulator in any predetermined adjusted position thereon. Onthe other hand, if the height of the neck-portion 2l of the stud is lessthan the thickness of the rim of the regulator, then the force whichwould normally act to bind the regulator to the plate will bedissipated, in part, in the distortion of the elevated resilient ngers30 of the regulator, the lingers 3U being bent downwardly as the stud isdriven into place so as to effectively prevent the hub-portion of theregulator from being bound to the rear face of the rear movement-plateby the enlarged headpo-rtion 20 of the stud Il. Moreover, since thesurface area presented to the underside of the stud-head by the ends ofthe segregated independent ngers, is relatively small, frictionalengagement of the stud-head 20 with the regulator 24 is minimized, whichfurther precludes any likelihood of the regulator being bound to therear movement-plate. The inherently-resilient and independently-actinglingers 39 of the regulator thus serve to compensate for slightvariations in the thickness of the regulator or in the dimensions of thestud-pivot bearing associated with the regulator, which variationsinevitably occur in the mass production oi anything but the most costlyprecision-built articles.

Referring to Fig. 6, the regulator of the present invention is shownassociated with a pivot-bearing 39 of the screw-threaded type.Pivot-bearings of this type are not provided with a stopshoulder orabutment to limit the extent to which the screw may be turned down intoa threaded aperture 40 in the rear movement-plate, as a consequence ofwhich the head of the screw is very apt to bind the regulator to theframe. In fact, it has been a characteristic ol this construction thatan extremely slight turning,r of the screW-pivot-bearing 39 beyond thatrequired to secure a regulator to the frame for pivotal adjustmentthereon, will bind a conventional regulator fixedly to the frame.However, ny providing the improved regulator 24 shown in the drawings,the resilient independent lingers 3G are capable of bending downwardlyto automatically compensate for a relatively-large number of rotationsof the screw beyond the point where the regulator is frictionally heldfor rotational adjustment on the frame. Any possibility of binding theregulator to the frame is thereby substantially--and to all practicablepurposeseliminated.

The invention may be carried out in other speciiic ways than thoseherein set forth without departing from the spirit and essentialcharacteristics of the invention, and the present embodiments are,therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and notrestrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalencyrange of the appended claim are intended to be embraced therein.

I claim:

In a timepiece, the combination including: a frame; a balance-wheel;bearing-studs fixed in said frame for pivotally mounting saidbalancewheel therein, one of said bearing-studs having a neck-portionprovided at its outer end with a hanged head and at its inner end with asubstantially-square shoulder adapted to seaty on 5 said frame and tohold the said flanged head of said neck-portion positively in spacedrelationship to said frame; a hairspring connected to said balance-wheeland to said frame for oscillating said balance-wheel; and a,hairspringregulator comprising an arm having an aperture at the outerend thereof to receive an outer convolution of said hairspring, and ahub-portion at the inner end of said arm lying in a plane atsubstantially right angles to the plane of said 1 arm, said hub-portionhaving a central aperture to receive the said neck-portion of said onebearing-stud, and a plurality of integral resilient ngers extendingradially into said central aperture and spaced circumferentiallytherearound, said resilient fingers being arranged to yieldingly engagethe underside of the flanged head of the said neck-portion of saidbearing-stud to thereby hold the said hub-portion of said regulator-armREFERENCES CITED The following references are oi record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 404,284 Johnson May 28, 18891,044,050 Horn Nov. 12, 1912 1,056,364 Porter Mar. 18, 1913 1,785,267Large et al. Dec. 16, 1930 1,801,999 Bowman Apr. 21, 1931 '2,294,023Colomb Aug. 25, 1942 2,364,143 Horton et a1 Dec. 5, 1944 2,413,414Obermaier Dec. 31, 1946

